Tornado Victims Can’t Go Home for Thanksgiving

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BRIDGETON, MO –(KMOX) –Seven months after the Good Friday tornado hit north St. Louis County, the landscape is still dotted with tarp-covered roofs, and many people can’t move back into their homes in time for Thanksgiving .

“Hopefully, we’ll be home for Christmas,” said Cindy Derda, whose ranch house on Old St. Charles Rock Road was smashed by a 90 foot tree in the storm.

She and her husband Paul were evaluating the progress of contractors Monday, as the neighborhood was awhirl with buzz saws, nail guns and landscaping bulldozers.

Nearby more than a dozen homes were destroyed on Beaverton Drive, a hilltop street that caught the wind as the twister came through.

Chuck and Roxanne Green lost their house and cars. A new house is taking shape on their lot and several of the nearby homes that were destroyed are also in the final stages of construction.

“It’s very miraculous that nobody got hurt in the tornado,” Green said, “I mean, you look and there were fifteen homes that got destroyed, and not one scratch. Nobody even had blood on them.”

The Greens are planning to have Thanksgiving at a relative’s house, then move back home in a few weeks. After a tumultuous year, Roxanne can now joke about the latest in a series of delays.